Monday, November 3, 2008

It's always nice to see success, and the Moishe House in Hoboken, New Jersey just got a bit of recognition.An article in the Jewish Standard gave props to the Heebs holding down the Hoboken Moishe House, touching on the grassroots nature of the organization.

Probably the most illustrative part of the piece was the quote, "[Moishe House] is a place for young Jews who want to hang out who aren’t necessarily attracted to a shul environment. At the end of the day, we are all members of the tribe."

Despite how totally different Hoboken may be from STL, there are clearly some commonalities. The first is that young Jews want a place to connect with other MOTs, without the institutionalized feeling of a synagogue or JCC.

The second is that free food is a pretty good motivator. We are Jews after all.

Finally, I think that a key take away is that no matter where you are, young Jews want to be engaged but are turned off by the main-streams overtures, which seem totally out of touch.